| The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students' learning and well-being. |
Fall 2007
Schools play an important role in the community. Likewise, the community supports the school. As a teacher I hold a position where I can act as a voice for students as well as informing the community, especially parents, of students’ accomplishments and weaknesses. Understanding “how factors in the students' environment outside of school...may influence students' life and learning" (Standard 10 Knowledge 2) is important in understanding how those positive and negative elements manifest themselves at school and in the classroom. "The teacher values and appreciates the importance of all aspects of a child's experience" (Standard 10 Disposition 1). Drawing upon INTASC Principle 2 (Knowledge of Development), I can adapt my methods to better suit the students’ learning style.
A sense of community within the school is equally important. When students have a sense of community among their peers, they will want to work together for the betterment of the school environment and the world around them.
Developing relationships with other colleagues and professionals is an important investment of my time. Through these connections I will have a broader network of professionals with which I can discuss strategies for teaching, assessment, motivation, and planning. These discussions will allow me to share my experiences as well as learn from the experiences of others. This directly affects students as I am continually improving and adapting my methods for enhanced learning.
Fall 2004
Since schools are such an important part of the community it is important that the teachers have a strong sense of community within the school. The community needs to be a strong supporter of the schools. The teachers are responsible for informing the community, especially parents, about the students' successes, accomplishments, and weaknesses. "The teacher understands how factors in the students' environment outside of school...may influence students' life and learning" (Standard 10 Knowledge 2). It is important to recognize this concept because students' home life and other circumstances can influence how well students learn at school.
Through building strong community ties not only within the school but also with those outside of the school, I can better understand how individual students learn and how to better assist them in their learning. "The teacher values and appreciates the importance of all aspects of a child's experience" (Standard 10 Disposition 1). If I can use the student's experiences in my teaching, the student is much more apt to learn the material and commit it to memory. "The teacher acts as an advocate for students" (Standard 10 Performance 6). The teacher needs to be the "voice" of the students in a sense. I need to represent the students in the community.
I think this will be a challenge for me. I have not been overly active in my community except for school functions or religious functions. I tend to be a little shy when dealing with large numbers of strangers. I think that if the larger part of the community that I am dealing with are parents I will be a little more comfortable. I am sure that I will be nervous about meeting parents and such but I think that it is to be expected.
Most of my teachers seemed to be inactive in the local community. The surrounding community was small. Maybe I am biased because I never really witnessed any of my teachers doing things in the community. Many of the elementary teachers would schedule Parent Teacher Conferences and have other such meetings with parents. However, there are other things that teachers could do to be involved in the community. I remember that one of my teachers was on the city council and consequently able to represent the school community in the surrounding community. But as I moved on to junior high and high school those meetings and other events became less frequent. The teachers who were active in the community were always very busy with other committments to other organizations and events that they felt were worthy causes. As a result of these few teachers participating in outside events, the school benefited because the other organizations saw representatives from the schools wanting to help interact with the surrounding environment.